The Second Opinion Workflow: How to Fact-Check Your AI

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TEC336: AI is a powerful tool, but it has a structural flaw: it speaks with confidence even when it’s completely wrong. On this episode of Secrets of Technology, Dom Bettinelli is joined by Fr. Joseph Sund and Tom Grelinger to discuss why blind trust in AI is a mistake — and what a better workflow looks like.

The panel lays out a five-step second-opinion process. First, ask AI to cite its primary sources — a failure to produce even one is an immediate red flag. Second, cross-check at least one factual claim manually before acting on anything. Third, ask AI to argue against its own answer; if the claim is solid, it should survive scrutiny. Fourth, ask specifically about uncertainties and known controversies on the topic. Fifth, and most importantly, apply your own judgment — AI can draft the map, but you have to choose the road.

The deeper issue is philosophical. AI optimizes for plausibility and coherence, not truth. Something that sounds authoritative is not the same as something that corresponds to reality, is backed by evidence, and is held by someone accountable. When you start treating “that sounds right” as equivalent to “that is right,” you’ve ceded your own critical faculties to a machine that cannot be held responsible for being wrong.

That’s especially dangerous in theological and moral questions, where nuance is everything. AI pulls from the same Reddit threads and forums as anyone else, and it cannot weigh the authority of a Jimmy Akin reply against a mistaken comment from an anonymous poster. The answer might sound correct and still be wrong. Use AI to find where to look — then go to the primary source yourself.

The panel also cautions against complacency: the better AI gets, the stronger the temptation to stop verifying. Don’t. Practicing verification exercises the virtue of prudence, and outsourcing judgment consistently weakens the capacity for it.

Also on this episode: the TinCan phone, a nostalgic VoIP landline for kids ages 5–13 that’s gaining traction for its simplicity, parental controls, and screen-free calling experience.

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